Resiliency Preparatory School students find strength in gov't leadership

Friday

Feb 5, 2016 at 12:01 AMFeb 5, 2016 at 2:31 PM

The Resiliency Preparatory School has a new group: Student Government.

FALL RIVER — The Resiliency Preparatory School has a new group: Student Government.

The body is more than 10 meetings into its first term. The half-dozen members comprising the group hope it becomes a lasting presence at the school.

They’ve been meeting twice a week — once during school and once after the dismissal bell.

The Herald News attended a few recent meetings, covering as it would an elected municipal body.

The students sit around a large rectangular table in the middle of school adjustment counselor Matt Silva’s room. They each have a legal pad for note-taking and a sheet of paper that lists the items to be discussed. Silva is the group’s adviser.

A few bungee chairs are arranged in one corner of Silva’s room. On the wall near those chairs hangs a poster of Elvis Presley. It features a quote from the king of rock ’n' roll: “Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son.” The sentence that finishes it: “You never walked in that man’s shoes.”

A blackboard on the wall at the other end of the room features a painting of the solar system — planets, the sun and rockets.

With Valentine’s Day two weeks away, fundraising is on the agenda — students toss around ideas like selling cards and heart-shaped lollipops.

“I was thinking we should come up with a lot of fundraisers,” said Secretary Chavahya Soto. She adds that she would like to raise funds for a senior class trip.

When making flyers comes up, Treasurer Kayla Mercado, so far the group’s only underclassman, offers her expertise: “I have art experience.”

The group delves into other topics — attendance, discipline and the possibility of lengthening their recently shortened lunch.

Members said efforts to improve student attendance often seem at odds with current suspension practices at the school.

Danny Andrade. the group’s director of public relations, noted for example, “They will kick kids out of school and suspend them because of their pants sagging.

“I can understand some kind of consequence for it,” he said. “But I don’t think taking away an entire day of school is appropriate for that. I think maybe a detention, or three of them stacked could up be a suspension.”

“I totally agree,” said Keenan Saffold, who serves as RPS’s student representative to the Fall River School Committee. “I’ve been thinking this the whole time. It’s just too harsh. They worry about getting something out of you, making you a bad example.”

Vice President Kimberly Rios questioned the use of suspension when students are late to class.

Silva listened as students spoke told the group the discipline model their school uses, “progressive discipline,” which means suspension is a last-resort consequence.

“They shouldn’t be going to suspension first off. You should review that,” he said to students.

Students said transportation appears to be an obstacle to attendance. Silva said, “The transportation person is downstairs. We can invite her to come to a meeting.”

On the topic of the new lunch schedule, Saffold said plainly, “There’s not enough time to eat.”

Jacop Hidalgo is president of the group.

Hidalgo, five months away from graduating high school, uses one word to sum up his experience at RPS and as a student leader: positivity.

Hidalgo said his involvement with student government has “helped me to think what do I want to do after, after high school.”

“A lot of kids don’t really think about after high school. Student government helped me to think positive,” he said. He’s now thinking about college.

“I already have my application in,” Hidalgo said.

Like Hidalgo, Saffold and their student government colleagues say programs at RPS, like an online credit recovery program, have helped them get their academic careers back on track.

Their stories, how they came to be referred to RPS is similar to their peers: court involvement, truancy, the difficulty of balancing attending school with being a young parent, and other issues.

Saffold said taking on a leadership role in his school has been an “empowering” experience.

“When you actually see change in the making, it’s a really good feeling,” he said.

There was one member not present for the meetings attended by a Herald News reporter: Hannah McAuley, the group’s director of fundraising.

At the same time the this group of students are their school’s new leaders, they’re also hoping to reform public perception of their school.

There have been past efforts to form student governments at RPS, but they’ve been short-lived.

Like the students, first-year RPS Principal Magdalana Reis is also hopeful that this is a continued program.

Reis said the decision to form a student government at RPS came from a goal to improve RPS’s overall school climate — where there’s mutual respect among students, their peers and staff, and fostering a sense of belonging.

“The culture has changed significantly,” Reis said. “Have a sense of community now, a sense of belonging now.

"Do they have challenges? Of course they have challenges. But they’ve been able to demonstrate excellent leadership,” Reis said. “They want to change this school. They have the same vision I do. They don’t want to be seen as troublemakers."

The criteria to get on student government include good attendance and academic standing. They have to receive a teacher recommendation.